Talk:Eddy Merckx/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Relentlessly (talk · contribs) 11:03, 21 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'll review this. Relentlessly (talk) 11:03, 21 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)

It is reasonably well written.
a (prose, no copyvios, spelling and grammar): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):
It is factually accurate and verifiable.
a (reference section): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):
It is broad in its coverage.
a (major aspects): b (focused):
It follows the neutral point of view policy.
Fair representation without bias:
It is stable.
No edit wars, etc.:
It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.
a (images are tagged and non-free content have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):
Overall:
Pass/Fail:

Specific points:

"In each year following the 1969 season until 1974, Merckx managed to complete a Grand Tour double each season, with his final double also coinciding with winning the men's road race at the UCI Road World Championships to make him the first rider to accomplish cycling's Triple Crown." This is a long and complex sentence and you've got a lot of duplication in the first part. I suggest "In each year from 1970 to 1974, Merckx managed to complete a Grand Tour double/ His final double also coincided with winning the men's road race at the UCI Road World Championships to make him the first rider to accomplish cycling's Triple Crown."

Tweaked your sentence, but Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 21:15, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"Merckx even broke the hour record in October 1972, extending the record by almost 800 meters." Why "even"?

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 22:52, 27 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"at the age of four Merckx claimed he knew he wanted to be a cyclist" I think you mean "Merckx claimed he knew he wanted to be a cyclist at the age of four", otherwise it sounds like he was doing the claiming when he was four.

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 22:52, 27 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure how to do it, but I think the reference to encyclopedia.com ought to mention that the work is the "Encyclopedia of World Biography", per the reference examples on the page itself.

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 21:24, 29 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"At the event, Merckx was approached by Bic team manager Raphaël Géminiani at the world championships" A few things with this sentence. First, duplication. Second, the false title grammatical construct. Third, most sentences in the article have Merckx as the subject. This seems like an ideal opportunity to have a refreshing contrast! How about "Raphaël Géminiani, the manager of the Bic cycling team, approached Merckx at the event and offered him 2,500 francs a month to join the team the following season."

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 22:52, 27 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"Three other riders reached the line with Merckx, of which Merckx got the best and won the race." I can see what you're trying to do here. Perhaps "Three other riders reached the line with him; Merckx, however, beat them in the sprint."

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 22:52, 27 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

You could mention that the 1966 MSR is his first Monument?

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 21:15, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"he raced the Tour of Flanders and the Paris-Roubaix, the former of which he crashed in and the latter of which he had a punctured tire." This doesn't quite make grammatical sense. You mean "he raced the Tour of Flanders and the Paris-Roubaix; in the former he crashed and in the latter he had a punctured tire."

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 22:52, 27 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

For a non-cycling audience, you could clarify that these are cobbled classics.

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 21:15, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"Simpson solidified his overall victory" Do you mean "Simpson secured his overall victory" or "Simpson extended his overall lead"?

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 22:52, 27 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"The race came down to a sprint finish that Merckx managed to win" A sprint of those four riders or of a larger group?

Cleared it up. Disc Wheel (T + C) 22:59, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"twelfth and fourteenth stage" Plural "stages".

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 22:52, 27 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"The course consisted of ten laps of a circuit, of which Motta attacked on the first one. Merckx joined Motta along with five more riders. He won the sprint ahead of Jan Janssen to win the day." I'm not quite following the narrative of this. First, some grammar: "The course consisted of ten laps of a circuit. Motta attacked on the first lap and was joined by Merckx and five other riders." Second, the narrative point: did that group reach the finish together, or were EM and Jan Janssen alone at the finish?

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 22:59, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'm very confused by the 1969 classics section. You say that Merckx won his first major victory at the Tour of Flanders and that the days afterwards saw lots of wins: surely MSR and Paris-Nice come before Flanders?

My fault, fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 23:26, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Several times you use a hyphen to separate race names, e.g. Paris-Nice, where you need an en-dash, e.g. Paris–Nice.

Got all I think. Disc Wheel (T + C) 23:26, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"snow plagued" – not really encyclopedic language.

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 21:57, 28 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

In 1970, you should link 1970 Paris–Roubaix, not the general article, as that has already been mentioned.

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 21:57, 28 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

" weary of returning to the race" – what does this mean? Do you mean "unwilling"?

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 21:57, 28 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Did nothing significant happen after the Tour in 1970?

The Fotheringham book didn't go into anything after that. But once school lets up a bit I'm going to check out the Friebe book and go through it to back up points from the Fotheringham book and possibly add more info. Disc Wheel (T + C) 22:59, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

" three split stages" – from the sounds of it this means one stage split into three, as the second stage is mentioned a couple of paragraphs later.

There were three stages held that day, 1a, 1b, and 1c - which are mentioned in the following sentence. Several of the days of racing were broken up 1970 Tour de France. It was much more common, I don't know really when they stopped that. From my work with the Giros it seems like the 90s.

With that, would you like me to alter it? I was thinking maybe a semi-colon instead of a new sentence so that it would be more obvious that the 1b and 1c were a part of the three split stages. Disc Wheel (T + C) 22:59, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

" sped into the finish" Not encyclopedic language again.

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 21:57, 28 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Each time he wins the World Championships, it feels like it's passed over quite quickly: you don't actually say "He became world champion" or mention the rainbow jersey.

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 22:59, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The 1972 Giro di Lombardia presumably meant that Merckx had won all five Monuments? Worth mentioning?

Fixed, but 71 was his first lombardia victory. Disc Wheel (T + C) 21:24, 29 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"a vertebrae" should be "a vertebra".

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 21:57, 28 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"despite his sprocket shifted him to the wrong gear" Doesn't quite make sense and I'm not sure how to rephrase it.

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 21:15, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"regaining the lead in the process" Not clear when he lost it.

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 21:57, 28 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Link Criterium

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 21:57, 28 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Who are "contenders" in the 1974 Tour?

Added. Disc Wheel (T + C) 23:26, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"held off the peloton to reach the finish in Orléans almost a minute and a half before the peloton" Can this be rephrased to reduce the duplication of peloton?

Fixed. Disc Wheel (T + C) 22:59, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Was there a reason for the continued poor performance in 1976 beyond the classics season?

I believe Fotheringham talked of his decline in performance as a whole just due to the intensity of his schedule in the years prior. Any thoughts? Disc Wheel (T + C) 22:59, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

" then ride several smaller races for appearances" What does that mean?

He participated in smaller races just for extra money and to draw publicity for the event. This is basically the equivalent of the post-Tour criteriums nowadays. Disc Wheel (T + C) 22:59, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"He flirted with sponsoring a youth developmental team with CGER Bank, a team that featured his son Axel." Did the team come into being at all? If not, "He explored sponsoring a youth development team with CGER Bank; the team would have featured his son Axel."

Cleared this up. Disc Wheel (T + C) 22:59, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Ref 35 is dead.

It works for me? It's just a Fotherinham book one. Disc Wheel (T + C) 21:57, 28 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know where I got 35 from. It was number 210 (and 209 as well, actually) and it's now fixed. Relentlessly (talk) 22:41, 29 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Haha Disc Wheel (T + C) 21:15, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not convinced about the use of File:Derny.jpg, which feels quite tangential, and File:Ventoux Flamme Rouge (14829387042).jpg, which is oddly snow-covered. Perhaps File:Mont Ventoux Gipfel von Westen.jpg instead?

I think the derny is necessary, because I honestly had no idea what one looked like when I was reading the book. Disc Wheel (T + C) 21:57, 28 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Other points:

If you're thinking of taking this to FA, you'll need to sort out your references so they appear in numerical order each time. I'm not so bothered for GA, but FA reviewers will be.

I don't think I have enough time to take this to FA. Fixed all that I spotted though. Disc Wheel (T + C) 21:57, 28 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Again, thinking of FA, some sections of the article read a little bit like a summary of significant results, rather than a narrative. You could compare Tom Simpson to see how this is done quite well. What were the tensions? What was he trying to achieve? For example, in the 1971 season, was there pressure going into LBL because of the failures in RvV and P-R? The Tour that year sounds like a much more difficult experience – any commentary on that?
The large team sections could be broken up into season sections as well. You do this implicitly, but sections would make it more readable, especially the looooong Molteni section.

Done. Disc Wheel (T + C) 22:59, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

You don't convert distances into imperial measurements at any point in the article. Is there a particular reason for this? I don't think it's necessarily a problem per MOS:CONVERSIONS.

No real reason at all, just happened that it turned out that way. Disc Wheel (T + C) 22:59, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Overall this looks like a good article, with a certain amount of work to do on it. I did a little copyediting as I was reviewing The biggest improvement you could make (not necessary for GA, though, I think) would be to add some extra narrative structure (perhaps as little as subheadings) to help the reader understand the context of the races. But the tweaks above will be enough for GA. On hold . Relentlessly (talk) 09:08, 27 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Relentlessly:Sorry for the sporadic editing, school has really taken up all the free time I had during the summer. But Now I believe I have addressed all the issues and replied to some comments you made. Disc Wheel (T + C) 23:26, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Looks good to me: very good work. I've enjoyed reading it, though I can't say I've warmed to Merckx! Promoted. Relentlessly (talk) 12:34, 31 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]